Throwing on some more extremely rough math:

Assume the average person lives 80 years.

Assume they start working at 20, and retire at 65.

Average out $4.4 mil over 45 years for an average yearly income their entire working life of…

$97,777.77

Ok, now check that against this:

https://www.omnicalculator.com/finance/us-income-percentile

And you get 83rd percentile, alternately stated as you have to be in the top 17% of Americans, by income.

Now again this is quite rough and the most obvious challenge to this math is that these estimated costs seem more to be for households, not individuals.

Well, ok, then if you go by household total income if $97k, this is the 65th percentile of households, ie, top 35% of households.

But to that one can counter that divorce rates are still climbing, and according to BLS, only about half of married households have both partners working.

https://www.bls.gov/news.release/famee.nr0.htm

… So basically the American Dream™ only exists for something around a quarter-ish of Americans, and of course half of that quarter would basically be considered quite wealthy.

“The lifetime tab for such aspirations as owning a home, driving new cars, raising kids and taking annual vacations comes to a cool $4.4 million, according to Investopedia, the financial media site. "

I wonder how much of it is interest through bad financial decisions. They don’t really push starting investments early or how to avoid the trap. But a lot of this could be down to people being conned with aspirational lifestyles at 25% APR. You shouldn’t be able to just go a buy a brand-new car, but now it’s needed for the industry to function, and people do it before having anything else sorted.

Vacations are another one we’ve been convinced we simply have to go to all these places 2 or 3 times a year. Most of us haven’t explored our own doorsteps yet.

Weddings that figure is crazy and people get the pressure to go further than that. As a married person, trust me, no one cares. They’re there for you, not some crazy venue. They all had to travel 4 hours to get to.

No doubt the cost of living has gotten well out of hand and earnings to interest rates are disgusting. But instead of making ladders, we make comfort blankets and focus on the previous generations and trying to play the game their way. The game is to beat inflation and most of us are on hard mode but it can be done.

Not if you skimp by, differing needed care. You can all live to a not-so-healthy 35 this way. Shut them eyes again and get to countin’ sheep!

If everybody on the planet lived like the most mediocre and most privileged pale skins in USA, the planet would be dead in a week.